Pep Guardiola to leave high-profile quintet out of Manchester City tour of USA

Pep Guardiola is set to leave five big name players worth around £100million in total out of the Manchester City squad that will travel to the US later this month.

According to the Daily Mail, Pep will not include Joe Hart, Eliaquim Mangala, Jason Denayer, Samir Nasri and Wilfried Bony in the squad, with all five available for transfer this summer.

The quintet, should they have not found new clubs by then, will train at the Etihad Campus while City are off facing Manchester United, Real Madrid and Spurs on a high-profile tour of the United States.

If there was any doubt about Joe Hart’s City future, this will put an end to that. With Claudio Bravo due an extended break after the FIFA Confederations Cup and Angus Gunn loaned to Norwich, City have just one senior shot-stopper available – new signing Ederson Moraes.

However, rather than take Hart as back-up, Guardiola will instead take a young goalkeeper, likely to be Daniel Grimshaw or promising Swiss youngster Aro Muric.

It is reported that City have knocked back loan offers from West Ham and Newcastle for Hart and are determined to sell him this summer for a fee of close to £18million. Txiki Begiristain is hoping to end the recent trend of loaning out proven players by finding buyers for the likes of Hart, Mangala, Nasri and Bony.

Unlike the others likely to be excluded from the pre-season tour, Denayer may depart on loan rather than permanently, with Lyon among a number of clubs keen on the 22-year-old Belgian international.